Preview — Prince of Mercenaries
by Jerry Pournelle

For a century, the Americans and Soviets had maintained an uneasy alliance based on the CoDominium, a world order in which no other power or combination of powers could threaten their mutual hegemony. Thus did the Americans and Russians learn to live at peace with each other.

But nothing lasts forever, the CoDominium's energies are nearly spent, and internal conflicts are rFor a century, the Americans and Soviets had maintained an uneasy alliance based on the CoDominium, a world order in which no other power or combination of powers could threaten their mutual hegemony. Thus did the Americans and Russians learn to live at peace with each other.

But nothing lasts forever, the CoDominium's energies are nearly spent, and internal conflicts are ripping it apart. The future belongs to colony worlds like Sparta—if they can survive the death-throes of Earth's civilization.

To do that they will need men who understand the art of war, men like mercenary commander John Christian Falkenberg, and Lysander, Prince of Sparta, the first Prince of Mercenaries. This is their story, as told by Jerry Pournelle, best-selling author of military science fiction....more

Community Reviews

Meh. While I would never call Pournell a bad writer, as a solo author his weaknesses in character development are striking. The story in "Prince of Mercenaries" is nevertheless fairly well told and his characters are not So wooden as to prevent you from caring. Also, 'though we do spend a little time on Earth in one of the sub-stories, unlike the volumes both before and after this one, there is little of the background on the political system of the CoDominion or anything else. In some ways it mMeh. While I would never call Pournell a bad writer, as a solo author his weaknesses in character development are striking. The story in "Prince of Mercenaries" is nevertheless fairly well told and his characters are not So wooden as to prevent you from caring. Also, 'though we do spend a little time on Earth in one of the sub-stories, unlike the volumes both before and after this one, there is little of the background on the political system of the CoDominion or anything else. In some ways it makes it a much easier read as you're only minimally burdened with the bigger picture of the "future history" he's trying to paint. It does make the book a rotten starting place for the series, though. Seriously, read "Falkenberg's Legion" first!As far as themes, one that he constantly comes back to is that there is very little that is black and white. Several of his characters start out as idealists of some stripe - one a socialist / communist, the other a young officer in an army bent on bringing "freedom" to the cruelly oppressed peoples of yada yada yada... Each receives a very hard lesson as they are repeatedly betrayed by their comrades or leaders, or learn things about the "just war" they are fighting that they would far rather not have known. Both also wash up into Falkenberg's (mercenary) legion. Furthermore, such organizations are ironically painted as perhaps the only place that you can practice the profession of arms with honor - the the Colonel himself promising one recruit that at least he'll never have to break his promises. In fact, the mercenary outfits could be described as sports teams playing a game with very specific rules (i.e. "no atrocities!") for whichever faction can pay them, and swapping players after the games as readily as the NFL or NBA. Of course, people tend to Die in this game, but hey, the universes needs Someone to do the needful fighting and this solution is far from the worst on the table... An interesting though, honestly! ...more

Not that I'm any military expert. This book, however, sent me to Wikipedia to look Pournelle up and figure out just what he's made of. It was too good to be amateur, and my intuition was right: Jerry Pournelle is the real deal, with deep understandings of history, tactics, strategy, and psychology.

At least he is from my layman's perspective.

This is what happens when a PhD gets some imagination, applies it, and runs with it. It just works.

I read this, and _The Mercenary_ because they are set in the same universe as War World, but no great shakes here. Fairly plodding plot, some he-man rah rah, just enough to keep you reading until the end.

This book falls in to the sub genre of military science fiction - along with Dorsai and Hammers Slammers - you have writers who have experienced actual military service and in some cases even military actions and have used their experiences to write science fiction. In the case of Falkenberg Legions you are looking at a military solution to another genre main stay - the fall of civilisation or in this case the fall of Earth (seen as the heart of the empire). What I enjoyed about this book is theThis book falls in to the sub genre of military science fiction - along with Dorsai and Hammers Slammers - you have writers who have experienced actual military service and in some cases even military actions and have used their experiences to write science fiction. In the case of Falkenberg Legions you are looking at a military solution to another genre main stay - the fall of civilisation or in this case the fall of Earth (seen as the heart of the empire). What I enjoyed about this book is the balance of character and charisma as well as tactician and leader - the characters were likeable and realistic and yet were dedicated to their cause. I have always enjoyed Jerry Pournelle and his style of writing - I have read equal amounts of praise and criticism and yet for me he was one of the newer science fiction authors who drew me away from the classics of the 50s and 60s and encouraged me in to the new age of science fiction. This is the first in a series of books which I suspect I will now be diving in to. ...more

Older science fiction that revolves around a mercenary company in the future. Pournelle is excellent as he lays out a setting that features hard science fiction and a future of colonization on planets. Like many in this genre, he focuses on the troubles inherent in a colony system based on penal relocation, indentured servitude and maintaining control over distant systems. The Co-Dominium is an excellent concept.

A solid and entertaining novel, this science fiction tale is both plausible and clever. Perhaps most surprisingly to me, this book made the characters feel more real and interesting than the epic military history that the book chronicles. It is not a five star book because nothing in it ever becomes truly great. Like the mercenaries of Falkenberg's Legion though, the writing in this book is so consistently good that it achieves its end without waste.

For a century the Americans and Soviets had maintained an uneasy alliance based on a new world order. But the CoDominium is decaying, and the future belongs to colony worlds like Sparta--if they can survive Earth's death-throes. To do that they will need men who understand war, men like mercenary commander John Christian Falkenberg, and Lysander, Prince of Sparta--the first Prince of Mercenaries.

This is a good installment in the series. As a stand-alone book, it's just good. But it moves the grand story along while hinting at the big picture, adds new good characters, and fleshes out existing strong characters. I'm ready to move on to book 3. Good writing and story telling. (I recommend people read this series in the form of the compilation called The Prince, for completeness. Some material seems to have been added.)

Not my kind of book. Life on other planets is much too earthlike (animals that seem to be a cross between a moose and a mule, sea creatures similar to loch ness monster, flowers, green jungles...) and thus unbelievable. Am I too strict?

Dr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. TDr Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American science fiction writer, engineer, essayist, and journalist, who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte, and from 1998 until his death maintained his own website and blog.

From the beginning, Pournelle's work centered around strong military themes. Several books describe the fictional mercenary infantry force known as Falkenberg's Legion. There are strong parallels between these stories and the Childe Cycle mercenary stories by Gordon R. Dickson, as well as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, although Pournelle's work takes far fewer technological leaps than either of these.

Pournelle served as President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1973....more